I shall bide quiet, keeping my Sussex against all comers, until I think a time has come.

And then, maybe, the old banner will go forward.

I would have you with me then." So it seemed that I had found a friend, though a strange one, and I thanked the earl, and promised him as he wished, for it bound me only to what I thought would surely never come to pass.
After that we went on to Relf, and rode to where we had left the men.

Then the earl left us, making his way to his ships that lay at Bulverhythe, where some were in winter quarters.

The great sea flood had changed the Pevensea haven strangely, and he mistrusted it.
I told Relf all these things, but he cared not much for aught but his free life in the Penhurst woodlands, where he had no foes or fear of foes left, now that the outlaws were done with.
"Well, if there must be fighting under the earl at some time," he said, "I am glad that you may be with us." And he cared to ask no more about it from that day, nor do I think that he ever gave these matters, which were so heavy to me, a thought, being always light hearted.